Swell sensation to be finally under sail

Sailing:Damian Foxall is co-skipper with Jean-Pierre Dick on Paprec-Virbac in the two-handed, non-stop Barcelona World Race that started yesterday. His race log will appear in the Irish Timesover the course of the 25,000-mile race

We're finally underway after months of preparation and expectation. It's great to be off the dock and begin the adventure that is this mammoth race against the fleet of eight others.

Our team of 10 shore crew are now looking to the two of us to deliver on all our hard work, though it will be a while yet before we can really demonstrate our new Open 60-footer's capabilities.

Paprec-Virbac is a state-of-the-art vessel and we've be tweaking her since she was launched in Tauranga, New Zealand, back in February.

Since then we've sailed halfway around the world, trialling every aspect of the boat and sails and especially the new trim-tabs, which are the biggest ever used on a racing boat.

The recent spate of mast breakages on other Open 60s is a concern for sure, but so far we've had no issues with our rig after all the intensive testing.

Over the summer, we fitted a new keel, so we're reassured on that front.

Overall, our preparations have served us well so we can focus solely on the race ahead, which will be very much a new experience for me.

Although this circumnavigation is my seventh time to race around the planet, in one sense it's a first as I've just left my wife, Suzy-Ann, on the dock with Oisín, who was born just five months ago.

This is going to be strange, watching him grow by video and email.

Suzy-Ann and I have planned for this since February. We took a whole week off before the start of race and we'll both just lead our own lives for the next three months, staying in touch, hopefully three times a week, which will help me to switch off from the intensity of racing.

Now I realise how difficult it has been for my crew-mates on previous campaigns who have had to leave their families behind. I've seen what they achieved, I know it can be done and overall it's going to be a new reason to be motivated.

I know I'll be wearing my harness earlier than I would usually and JP and myself have discussed and planned for all possible dramas. We've really connected well and complement one another.

He's been around once before, in the last Vendée Globe (single-handed, non-stop) and he placed sixth, which is pretty impressive.

But for the pair of us this week, just getting out of the Med with light winds will be a job in itself.

We're expecting light airs until Tuesday at least and so our options boil down to diving south to Ibiza to position for the new wind on Tuesday or hugging the coast, a more direct route, in hope of finding night breezes.

We have to limit any potential losses until we reach the Atlantic, so keeping up in the leading pack is the basis of our strategy until we get through the Straits of Gibraltar.

It's fairly straightforward till then but as the weekend beckons, the pressure will really start to build on us as we start the mad dash to the Canary Islands and the second scoring gate of the race.

• In conversation with David Branigan.